Chapter 28
Jul 18, 2025
Emery’s POV
I thought I was about to lose the one thing I could truly call mine. My baby. The only reason I keep going. The only light in a world that’s been mostly dark.
Thankfully, the baby was safe. In a few days, we would finally be ready to go home. Landon hadn’t left my side since I got here, but somehow, even with him nearby, we were back at square one.
He still brought me groceries, tried to help whenever he could, but I didn’t even look at him. I ignored every word, every attempt to get close.
I didn’t want to stress my baby again. I wasn’t going to lose the baby again, not because of him. Staged or not, Marian’s plan had worked, she had hurt me.
And because of that, I was scared to be near Landon.
But he was patient. He never left, not once, even as my labor grew closer. I stayed in the hospital, waiting for the baby to come.
He brought every meal to my bedside, even the bland ones I refused to eat. Every twenty minutes, he adjusted my pillows like it was the most important thing in the world. When I tried to sit up, he was always there, rushing to help.
Sometimes I pushed his hands away.
“Landon, I’ve got this,” I said one morning, struggling to sit up on my own.
He stepped back with his hands raised. “Just trying to help.”
“Well, don’t,” I snapped, surprising both of us.
He didn’t take it personally. He just nodded and went to pour water into my cup, setting it carefully on the table beside me. But I could feel the weight of him staying, of him not giving up. He never once made me feel like a burden.
Even when I acted like one.
One night, I had to pee but didn’t want to bother the nurse. I swung my legs slowly over the bed, trying to hide the pain spreading across my back.
“I’ll help,” Landon said softly from the chair beside me. He’d been watching the whole time.
“I said I’ve got it.”
“Emery, you’re barely-”
“I said leave!” I shouted. My voice echoed against the hospital walls.
His face froze. He didn’t argue. He just stood up.
“Okay,” he whispered, backing away.
I was halfway across the room when the pain hit. Sharp and deep, low in my belly.
“Ah-” I grabbed the edge of the sink, my legs wobbling. My knees buckled.
Landon caught me just before I hit the floor. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
I clenched my jaw against the wave of pain. “Contractions.”
His face was drained of color. “Now?”
“Yes, now!”
The next few minutes blurred together. Nurses rushed in, monitors beeped louder, and my breathing got faster. I was wheeled into the delivery room, the sterile walls closing in around me.
Landon ran beside the gurney, not caring that I had wanted him gone only minutes before.
“I’m not leaving you,” he said, breathless. “No matter how loud you yell.”
Labor was long and brutal. I didn’t cry, but I screamed more than I thought possible. Landon never let go of my hand.
Every time I thought I couldn’t push anymore, he leaned close and whispered, “You’re doing amazing, Emery. Just a little more.”
I wanted to tell him I couldn’t, that I was running out of strength, but the words caught in my throat. Instead, he kept murmuring, sometimes nonsense like, “Remember that time we got lost hiking? We made it through that. We’ll make it through this too.”
Other times, soft promises I wasn’t sure I believed: “I’m right here. You’re not alone.”
It wasn’t about the words themselves. It was the fact that he stayed. That he kept holding on, steady, even when everything inside me felt like breaking. Then it happened.
The doctor’s voice cut through the chaos. “It’s a girl!”
I collapsed back on the bed, soaked in sweat and shaking all over. And then I saw Landon.
He was standing still, watching as they handed the baby to him first. He looked down at her silently, awe written on his face.
Then he bent his head low, resting his forehead gently against hers.
“Hi, baby girl,” he whispered, voice raw and cracked. “I’m your dad.”
He didn’t look at me right away, but when he finally did, his eyes were full. Not just tears, but everything he had been trying to say without words all this time.
From the bed, I watched the man who once walked away. Now he was standing right there. Holding everything that mattered.
